Draw out your energy with yoga breathing, says Amy

Our enlivening yoga teacher Amy Rogg concentrates on breathing in this tip, to help you in relaxation and restoration.

Amy says: “When we experience stress, our systems, including the breath, contract. Our breathing can become shortened, shallow or chaotic, losing homeostatic rhythm and depth. This also causes a decrease of oxygen in the bloodstream which robs our cells of essential nutrients.”

There are many breath regulation practices in yoga, known as Pranayama. Prana means “’life energy’ and Ayamameans ‘to draw out’. Here are three breath practices from Amy, which you can incorporate into your everyday routine “to help promote the relaxation response and create restorative balance in your system as a whole.”

1) Alternate Nostril Breathing:

Use right hand. Place your pointer and middle finger on the space between your brows. Lay ring finger lightly on top of left nostril. Lay thumb lightly on top of right nostril. Plug left nostril and breathe in through the right. Hold breath. Plug right nostril and breathe out of the left. Inhale left, hold and plug. Exhale right. Inhale right, hold and plug. Exhale left. Repeat for 3-5 minutes.

2) Increase O2 Breathing:

Take a two part breath in. Hold the breath at the top for 3 seconds. Exhale through the teeth (marking a hissing sound) and slowly let the breath drain out. Hold breath at the bottom for 3 seconds. Repeat.

3) Two-chamber Breathing:

Place one hand on belly and one hand on chest. Inhale slowly filling the belly first then the chest. The exhale everything out. Repeat. You can add counts to this breathing method…breathing in for 6 seconds, breathing out for 8. Or 4:6, 5:7 etc. Pick the breath ratio that works for you at this time.

Amy and her colleague Joanne Brohmer are running a wonderful yoga retreat at the Watermill this Summer. So take a deep breath and think of beautiful Tuscany, amazing food and restorative yoga. With their students using words like ‘joy’ and ‘magical’ about them, Amy and Joanne will help you to awaken and restore your true passion and self-worth. We are sure this is going to be one of our most inspiring retreats –a sun-filled, fun-filled week where we’ll nurture your mind, body and spirit.

Amy and Joanne’s week will run from Saturday 25 August to Saturday 1 September 2018. The theme of the retreat will be ‘Connection’ – to yourself, to others and to nature.

Amy Rogg is a yoga teacher and movement facilitator working on transforming the human spirit through holistic arts. She is based in San Francisco, California, USA. Amy helps people to awaken and restore their passion and self-worth, inspiring them to move towards their vulnerability and authenticity. She brings people back into their innate knowledge and wisdom, through a deeper connection to their body, breath, and personal expression.

As a healer, Joanne Brohmer offers a range of modalities that helps others enter into their own depth and set their anchor deeper, where they can begin to claim and feel what has been hard to reach. She helps bring what has been blocked forward into the safe home of acceptance and embrace. She facilitates bringing others to that soft, open, vulnerable place in a way that feels safe.

Participants on our yoga retreat with Amy and Joanne enjoy SEVEN nights at the Watermill, with full board. Everything is included in the cost of the retreat: workshops, accommodation (including all linen and towels), tours, pre-dinner aperitifs, all meals and wines (including outings to charming local restaurants) and all local transportation (including transfers to Pisa airport and an excursion by train to Lucca). You get to Pisa, Italy, we do the rest! You can see a draft itinerary by clicking here.

Come and practise your yoga and meditation in the tranquil heart of rural Tuscany and let us nurture your mind, body and spirit.

Amy Rogg & Joanne Brohmer25 August to 1 September 2018– still placesYoga retreatTo learn more about Amy and Joanne and their course at The Watermill, please visit their Tutor Page